BOSTON – Courthouses shuttered. Thousands of trials on hold. Legal deadlines pushed. The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the U.S.
legal system, creating constitutional dilemmas as the accused miss their days in court. The public health crisis could build a legal backlog that overwhelms courts across the country, leaving some defendants behind bars longer, and forcing prosecutors to decide which cases to pursue and which to let slide. “Everybody is scrambling.
Nobody really knows how to handle this,” said Claudia Lagos, a criminal defense attorney in Boston. Judges from California to Maine have postponed trials and nearly all in-person hearings to keep crowds from packing courthouses.